Company Details:

Company Name & Slogan: D Hart Accounting Practitioner, LLC

Location: 215 Medical Circle, West Columbia, SC 29169

What does your company do? D Hart Accounting provide accounting and tax services to individuals and their businesses. We specialize in helping taxpayers get out of tax trouble, tax preparation and planning, payroll and bookkeeping.

The Story:

How did your company start and how did it grow? I always had a love for numbers, hence my bachelor’s and masters degrees in Accounting. When I graduated from college, I spent 15 years in the finance and accounting departments of several Fortune 500 companies. All the while I was working at H&R Block part time as tax preparer during tax season and a tax instructor after tax season. After spending 10 years working for H&R Block I decided to branch out on my own. A lot of my business clients at HR Block would constantly asked if I provided any bookkeeping services. So I opened up a part time bookkeeping and tax service called Bookkeeper’s Ink in 2003 while I was still in corporate America full time. My company grew organically to the point that I had to make a decision as to whether I would stay a one person show part time or go for it full time. I chose full time in 2010.

How did you do things before PayPanther and how has PayPanther helped today? Before PayPanther, we tried several other CRM’s but none were quite a good fit for us. Other CRMs were either too simple (not providing enough features), too costly for a practice our size, or had poor customer service.

What is your favorite thing about PayPanther? I enjoy having the Internal Note feature. This keeps everyone in the loop. When clients have different queries, we all are able to refer to the internal notes. This helps us provide better customer service to our clients. When customer service issues arise, it doesn’t matter who initiated the client’s communication, any staff (with access to handle clients needs) will be able to service the client.

What is one piece of advice you would offer other business owners in your industry? The accounting industry is vast and constantly changing; especially the income tax preparation industry. My one piece of advice I would offer others in my industry is to become credentialed in the area that you practice. This doesn’t ensure that you know it all; but it does allow you to provide the best services you possibly can to your clients. Anytime you have a license or certification in our industry, it forces you to seek continuing education. My accounting practitioner’s license requires me to have 40 hours continuing education hours per year. My Enrolled Agent license requires 72 hours every three years. With pleasure, I always get more!